MEANING:noun: A dark red or brownish purple color.adjective: Of this color.

ETYMOLOGY:From French puce (flea), from Latin pulex (flea). Earliest documented use: 1778. Other terms coined after the flea are flea market, a direct translation of French marché aux puces and ukulele (from Hawaiian, literally leaping flea, perhaps from the rapid motion of the fingers in playing it).

MEANING:noun: A person who flatters or tries to please someone to gain favor.verb intr.: To behave as a toady.

ETYMOLOGY:From shortening of toad-eater. In times past, a quack employed an assistant who ate (or pretended to eat) a poisonous toad and was supposedly cured by the quack's medicine. From there the word extended to a person who would do anything to curry favor. Earliest documented use: 1827.

USAGE:"Klein and the rest of Mission Control want a bunch of yes men and toadies."Martin Shoemaker; Murder on the Aldrin Express; Analog Science Fiction & Fact (New York); Sep 2013.

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